LOS ANGELES – Julie Roe Lach has a cold. But then, she’s used to fighting off attacks.

Roe Lach works for the National Collegiate Athletic Association – i.e., the organization everyone loves to hate.

Roe Lach became the NCAA’s vice president of enforcement in November. The enforcement staff conducts the infractions investigations that eventually lead to penalties against institutions and individuals.

USC is one such sanctioned school. The Trojans received their punishment stemming from the Reggie Bush case last June. Saturday will mark four weeks since USC’s appeal hearing. The results should be released within the next month.

The NCAA won’t comment on ongoing cases. But those who now run college sports’ governing body want to be more open. They want to address what Roe Lach described as “some misunderstandings of who we are, how we do our job and how the process works.”

That’s why Roe Lach is meeting with a reporter in the lobby of a downtown L.A. hotel on a sunny February afternoon. Since she became the NCAA’s “top cop” last year, succeeding David Price, Roe Lach has been reaching out to schools, law firms that represent them and media organizations.

The goal, in part, is to put a face on the NCAA, which at times has operated under a veil of secrecy akin to the CIA. Roe Lach’s is a friendly one. Think Holly Hunter, only taller and thinner.

On this day Roe Lach, 35, is wearing a gray business suit over a black blouse. She’s a little hoarse from the cold, apparently caught from infant daughter Halle, but willing to battle through it to explain why she’s here.

The one-sentence summation: “We realize that we need to get out there more.”

‘A COMPLEX ORGANIZATION’

Roe Lach and her colleagues are well aware of the criticism levied at the NCAA from multiple parties, ranging from fans to media members to former Florida football coach Urban Meyer, who last week ripped the NCAA on a radio show in Indianapolis, where the organization calls home.

It isn’t transparent enough, if at all. Its rules are confusing, even nonsensical. It plays favorites.

“No doubt it’s a complex organization,” Roe Lach said. “One thing all of us have talked about is, how we can better communicate the different processes and the values that drive those decisions? How can we explain what those are to give people greater context for the decisions that we’re making?”

Mark Emmert, the recently elected president of the NCAA, echoed those sentiments to a group of Associated Press sports editors last week, saying: “We need to provide you all with a lot more information and be as forthright as we can about it. We’re working on it. It’s going to take us awhile.”

Although the NCAA is a private organization, many of its members are public, taxpayer-supported institutions. Public and private schools alike receive monetary donations to support their athletic programs. As such, “the public has some type of right to know whether the product they’re seeing on the screen matches the representation the NCAA is providing,” said attorney Michael L. Buckner, who has represented schools and individuals in cases against the NCAA.

The NCAA’s rulings, cloaked in secrecy and delivered in legal-speak, often leave fans frustrated. USC supporters were furious when the NCAA slapped the football program with sanctions that were some of the harshest in years. Their dissatisfaction only grew when the NCAA issued rulings in cases involving Auburn and Ohio State that seemed similar on the surface. None of the players involved in those cases had to sit out a bowl game as USC’s entire team did for infractions that occurred five years earlier.

But who, other than legal experts or people inside the NCAA’s walls, knew that entirely separate entities – the Committee on Infractions in the USC case, the Student-Athlete Reinstatement Committee in the Auburn and Ohio State ones – determined those rulings?

“I don’t fault the media and general public. They don’t know the process,” Buckner said. “I place the blame on the NCAA because they have not done enough to educate people.”

‘ENFORCEMENT EXPERIENCE’

Despite having tussled with her in the past, or perhaps because of it, Buckner believes Roe Lach’s efforts are sincere.

“If Julie tells me transparency is the cornerstone for what she wants to do as vice president, I take her for her word,” Buckner said. “If she tells me she’s going to do something, then that’s what she’s going to do.”

Of course, actions speak the loudest, and the NCAA is taking a tangible step toward letting the public behind the curtain.

In late spring, the NCAA will play host to the “Enforcement Experience,” allowing first its board of directors and then members of the media to participate in a mock investigation. The simulation is modeled after the mock NCAA Tournament selection exercise 20 media members are participating in this week.

The “Enforcement Experience” will begin with an investigation of a fictional case, continue with a determination of charges and conclude with an infractions hearing and deliberation.

Buckner favors televising the mock hearing. That isn’t part of the current plan. But by allowing the media to participate, the NCAA potentially is opening itself to further scrutiny.

Its head of enforcement is willing to take that chance.

“To the extent we can bring some clarity,” Roe Lach said, “it will help all of us.”

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